Before the creation of government social warfare programs, such as Social Security (1935), Medicare (1966) ,and even before the Veterans Administration (1930), every American was responsible for his or her own health, welfare and death benefits.

The seal of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Odd Fellows. Click to enlarge.

English “friendly societies” in the late 1700s began collecting membership fees to provide charity to their members in time of need. The best know of these groups became known as the “Odd Fellows” because of the new, different or odd way they provided support to its membership. In 1819 English immigrant Thomas Wildey formed the first Odd Fellows Lodge in Baltimore, MD. By his death in 1861 he grown American Odd Fellows membership to over 400,000. And by 1920 the Odd Fellows would build and maintain more than 25 orphanages and homes for widows and indigent brothers. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows great example inspired hundred of other fraternal organization to expand health and death benefits through private charity, mutual assessment and commercial insurance policies to millions of Americans.

Recommended reading:

Beito, David T. From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890 -1967, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.